Sweetgreen discovered a hot new salad ingredient after talking to a farmer

Beyond the appealing design, efficient flow, and excellent recipes found at this salad chain, there are those wonderful ingredients. Sweetgreen's commitment to local is clear in its seasonal menus and the board listing all of its suppliers. It's even more clear when you hear anecdotes like how sweetgreen discovered broccoli leaf.

"About a year and a half ago, we went to the Salinas Valley in Northern California. We met a farmer who was showing us his plot of broccoli," Ru said. "Most people associate broccoli with the florets or crowns, but it actually grows in a similar fashion to like a kale or a winter green. There's all these leaves that surround this broccoli crown."

So the team asked the farmer, "What do you do with leaves once the crown is gone? Do you sell them?"

He replied: "No, nobody wants to eat it. We till them back into the ground."

"Well, can you eat them?" they asked.

"Yeah," the farmer replied. "It's just as healthy if not healthier, than most of the lettuces you see out there."

So Sweetgreen made a deal for the broccoli greens, and the rest is history. sweetgreen